Public Works Commission addresses plow concerns from residents

Jim Salemi

Published
12:00 am EST, Thursday, February 14, 2013

Catherine Avalone/The Middletown Press
Motorists were forced to drive in the opposite lane around a mound of snow at the corner of Highland Avenue and Bretton Road in Middletown until late Thursday afternoon.

Catherine Avalone/The Middletown Press
Motorists were forced to drive in the opposite lane around a mound of snow at the corner of Highland Avenue and Bretton Road in Middletown until late Thursday afternoon.

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Catherine Avalone/The Middletown Press
Motorists were forced to drive in the opposite lane around a mound of snow at the corner of Highland Avenue and Bretton Road in Middletown until late Thursday afternoon.

Catherine Avalone/The Middletown Press
Motorists were forced to drive in the opposite lane around a mound of snow at the corner of Highland Avenue and Bretton Road in Middletown until late Thursday afternoon.

Public Works Commission addresses plow concerns from residents

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MIDDLETOWN >> Comments and criticisms about why certain streets were plowed before others during last weekend's storm were addressed by the members of the Public Works Commission on Wednesday night.

The blizzard dumped almost 30 inches of snow over the course of a day from Friday afternoon into Saturday and members of the Public Works Commission responded to some comments and criticisms posted on local newspaper websites and on Facebook concerning snow removal at its regular meeting.

Comments included complaints that certain streets were given priority over others and that some streets were plowed only partially and some not at all, despite being told over the weekend that most roads would be passable by Sunday at midnight.

In particular, one reader asked why Main Street was given priority during the storm.

"We do the block of the fire department first, so the trucks can get out if they have to, then the hospital and the emergency room entrance," Public Works Director William Russo explained.

Dingwall Drive is also kept clear so police vehicles can get out, he said. Old Mill Road and Walnut Grove Road are kept clear so dump trucks loaded with snow can make it to Veterans Park, the designated dumping grounds for snow removed from roadways, Russo said.

Other readers complained that on some roads, only a small portion was plowed.

"We had a few births, a few people in need of meds and oxygen," Russo said. "In those instances, we'd clear the road up to the house to get to them."

While first responders -- and their plow truck escorts -- contended with some medical emergencies, there were no accidents or injuries resulting from them, Russo said. Emergency officials have also said there were no calls during the storm that they didn't respond to.

"It was not easy getting there," Russo said, "but we had no incidences where we couldn't get to a house."

It wasn't easy getting from one end of a street to the other, either.

Russo said plow drivers experienced white-out conditions at times because of how fast the snow kept coming down.

In some areas, roads could not be plowed because trucks could not get up to an adequate speed to push the heavy snow, and payloaders or snowblowers had to be called in to do the removal, Russo said.

At least one truck got stuck when it couldn't get around an abandoned car left in the road in the west end of town, Public Works Commission Chairman Todd Berch said.

"People not heeding the ban got stuck and impeded the trucks," he said. "Tow trucks couldn't get to them."

Although Middletown Mayor Dan Drew reported earlier in the week that cars that did not heed the city-wide parking ban were towed -- as many as 60 of them as of Saturday morning.

By Tuesday afternoon, city crews had begun widening roads and opening up more than one lane of traffic.

Given the volume of snow and 200-plus miles of city roads in need of clearing, "the town as a whole came out pretty good," Russo said.

Russo said he will schedule a meeting with the road crew in the near future to discuss problems they encountered and ideas on how to improve operations in the event of another significant storm.

Berch commended the drivers and other city workers for their work in the face of such a storm.

"They did a fantastic job and continue to do a fantastic job. I've had phone calls complementing us that we got to them so quickly," he said. "Of course, I got a lot of phone calls of people complaining we didn't get to them soon enough, but most were reasonable and understanding."

Parks and recreation, sewer and water, even the custodians who were shoveling -- the entire city did well -- Berch said.

"Remember, once workers, who were exhausted, did their job, they had to go home and take care of their own property," Berch said. For most of the weekend, "they had to stay at the city yard -- they couldn't get home."